Hello,

We're trying a new strategy for marketing our game Super Groovy. We have created a web version called Get Groovy. People can play it in their browser for free, then choose to download Super Groovy if they like it.

Obviously PopCap, GameHouse, and others already do this. One of the things we are trying to figure out is how good to make the web version vs. the full Super Groovy, and who to distribute the web game through.

If anyone is interested I'd love to hear any feedback on the web version of our game.

I think it would also be valuable to open a discussion here on the advantages and disadvantages of building a web version of a game, and what the marketing implications are.

Both the web and downloadable version of Super Groovy are available at our main site:
http://www.insaneplay.com

I look forward to hearing what you folks think.

-Denis

A comment for the paranoid - While the popup link to play the game obviously will not work without javascript, the game *itself* will run just fine with js disabled.

(You could rig the link so it would still open for the JS-deprived, but this isn't necessary, we paranoid types expect to have to turn things on to play games. :) )

Can you explain how I would rig the link to work without javascript, as you suggest. Sounds like something we should look into.

Thanks,
Denis

Cool gfx and music. It's kinda easy on the web version (I didn't download the trial version). Also, generally if you know how to turn javascript off with your browser then you should know how to extract the link from the file and enter it in the browser yourself :) Also, you could always have one with javascript and if the browser doesn't support it it will use a different link. (Although this does use DHTML). heres how you could do it:

<div id="link">
<a href="game.html">Game</a>
<div>

<script language="javascript">
<!--
link=document.GetElementById(link);
link.innerHTML="<a href='popup()'>Game</a>";
// -->
</script>

since it uses DHTML i wouldn't recommend using it. Most people don't have javascript disabled anyways.

Hiya Denis,

Good luck with marketing your game! InsanePlay seem to be similar to canDo in that we also have two people with years of games industry making smaller indie games, based on Shockwave so that a web demo version is possible.

I'm very interested in finding out how your game ( which is a lot of fun, well done! ) finds it's way onto the web, and to making you guys some money.

In this field, we're not so much competition as fellow "start up" developers trying to break into a potentially lucrative distribution channel, of which Shockwave.com and RealArcade seem to be the two largest publishers ( other smaller but similar outlets seem to prefer to develop their own content ).

Best of luck!
Mal

BTW you can check out our latest shockwave based game here...
http://www.candomultimedia.com/3dStressBall

I've played both versions. I think having a web version is a really excellent crucial piece of marketing, and I definitely plan to make web versions of several of our games as well.

This game seems ideal for Realarcade, so I'd probably try to put it up there. They host both web and retail versions and I'm pretty sure one creates buzz for the other. Popcap or gamehouse might even be interested in distributing it.